Target These Late Round Sleepers In Your 2021 Fantasy Football Drafts
In recent weeks, the Yards Per Fantasy team got together to deliver “our guys” and players we’re avoiding. This week, we are naming our favorite late round sleepers and why we are targeting them in our 2021 fantasy football drafts. We make a case for why you should be considering these guys too. If you want to hear more from our team, be sure to join us on Discord! We’re talking fantasy every day and always willing to answer your questions!
Jakobi Meyers, WR, New England
Meyers, a third-year receiver from North Carolina State had a solid campaign last season, amassing 81 targets and a statline of 59/729/0. He finished as the WR 53 while missing two games and also suffering through the Patriots QB conundrum last season. Newton, who joined the Patriots late last offseason, had major hiccups during his first season in New England.
Bryan Edwards, WR, Raiders
I’m drafting him as my WR6 and expecting him to fill in nicely in spot starts and in the flex spot during bye weeks. In the 12th, draft Edwards with confidence.
Blake Jarwin, TE, Cowboys
With Jason Witten out of the picture, Blake Jarwin was poised for a breakout heading into 2020. He even signed a big contract extension before the season. But just 25 snaps into the first game, the wrath of the year 2020 took him out with a season-ending ACL tear. Instead, it was Dalton Schultz playing the TE1 role in Dallas. Schultz ran the third most routes of any tight end and finished with over 60 receptions and more than 600 yards. He was TE18 on the year in PPR fantasy points per game and his 89 targets were the ninth most at the position.
A healthy Jarwin is a far superior pass catcher than his 2020 fill-in, so he’ll be able to extend those numbers further with similar opportunity. He is one of the more athletic tight ends in the league with above average speed and burst. Playing behind Witten in 2019, Jarwin was top-12 in Yards Per Reception, No.6 in Yards Per Target, and No.8 in Target Premium. He was also eighth with 2.37 yards per route and top-five in Fantasy Points Per Route (PlayerProfiler).
The Cowboys are getting back quarterback Dak Prescott which will only help propel all Dallas pass-catchers further. They project to be one of the highest pass volume teams in the league again and they garner one of the easiest pass schedules in 2021. With how poor their defense is, and how explosive some of their opponents’ offenses are, the Cowboys will find themselves in numerous shootouts like we saw in early 2020. While there are certainly many “mouths to feed” in Dallas, Jarwin will see enough volume to propel his breakout season.
Remember, even Schultz saw almost 90 targets last year. Jarwin is effective after the catch and presents an explosive element in the middle of the field. He is bound to see a number of red zone opportunities given his size and how often the offense will be inside the 20. Everything lines up for Jarwin to be a top-12 TE. He may have a couple quiet outings given the other options in the offense, but he will be a top-5 scorer on multiple occasions.
Parris Campbell, WR, Colts
Parris Campbell has had a rough start to his career. He battled injuries all throughout his rookie season, then went down in Week 2 of his second year. He’s finally healthy and in line to take on a significant role in 2021. Campbell looked like he was going to have a breakout season in 2020 when he caught six of nine targets for 71 yards in Week 1. He ran 28 routes while playing 83.8-percent of the snaps and garnering a 19.5-percent target share. He finished the week as the WR27 in fantasy points. Campbell was an excellent prospect coming out of Ohio State where he broke out at age 18 and caught 90 passes for 1,063 yards and 12 touchdowns in his final season.
Campbell is an excellent athlete. He ran a 4.31 40-yard dash and has a 97th-percentile Speed Score and 97th-percentile Burst Score (PlayerProfiler.com). He’s going to have a prominent role in the Colts offense, especially if T.Y. Hilton ends up missing significant time. Campbell will play from the slot, gobbling up targets and creating plays after the catch while also getting down field looks as the fastest man on the field.
Darnell Mooney, WR, Bears
Last year, in limited action, Mooney was impressive as a 5th round pick for Chicago despite having underwhelming QB play. Mooney finished the year with just under 100 targets, 61 catches(team rookie record), 631yds, and 4TDs.
Mooney, despite was only starting in 6 games, he was 10th in unrealized air yards with 739 and also 11th in deep targets with 23 according to playerprofiler.Mooney did struggle with poor QB play, placing 33rd in target accuracy, 72nd in catchable %, and 84th in target quality, again according to playerprofiler. Mooney falls into the breakout category for me this year, especially considering what we have soon from Justin Fields this preseason.
Mooney has worked closely with Allen Robinson this offseason, and that was something that he really wasn’t afforded last offseason. With a year under his belt learning from one of the best in the game, and improved QB play, Mooney could be in for a fantastic sophomore season, and should almost certainly smash his current redraft ADP of WR51 in the 12th round according to the latest Sleeper ADP.
Josh Palmer, WR, Chargers
Drafted from the exact same spot as Keenan Allen back in 2013, Palmer slid under the radar not due to talent, but simply because his team was not good and his stats did not pop off the page. In 2020, Palmer had just 475 receiving yards, but that was 23% of his teams yardage for the year and roughly 70% of his catches went for 1st downs. Palmer has already shown in the preseason that he is trusted in the offense, even as a rookie, as he led the Chargers in both targets (7) and catches (6) in their first preseason game.
With Mike Williams already injured, and hisrelative inability to stay healthy throughout his career, Palmer could easily be the WR2 in an offense that should be one of the most high powered in the league. At his current ADP, which is essentially going undrafted, he’s a guy that I’m looking at later in drafts where you’re swinging for the fences on upside, especially in deeper leagues. You want as many important pieces of this offense as youcan, and Palmer could certainly be that this season.
Kenny Gainwell, RB, Eagles
We’ve unfortunately already seen a few young running backs go down with season-ending injuries this preseason. Cam Akers, Travis Etienne, and likely J.K. Dobbins were all expected to have massive roles on their offenses before getting injured. This makes handcuffing your RBs more important than ever.
Gerald Everett, TE, Seahawks
Everett will finally have a chance to show what he can do in a lead role this season. Moving on from Los Angeles in favor of this lead role has created a dip in his fantasy stock. This is a crazy though especially with how unpredictable the tight end position can be. Everett is a very athletically gifted player. He had high percentile scores in many work metrics, he also carried a high college dominator rating. Pete Carrol has a god track record at producing top tight ends for fantasy, over his 10 years in the NFL he targets the position over 100 times a year. Everett will be in line for a decent target share, and could see solid work in the red zone. Right now few people are talking about Everett, he can be acquired fairly cheap. As a result he is worth the low risk high reward at a position that anyone can finish top 10.
Rhamondre Stevenson, RB, Patriots
Stevenson has been tearing the preseason up with 5 TD’s in only 3 games. I’m his first 2 preseason games he had a total of 131 yards after contact and 9 forced missed tackles. He’s powerful and elusive. The backfield got a little less crowded as Michel went to the Rams so I can see a path to playing time and some pretty nice fantasy production and he’s essentially free, you can get him with your last pick!
Russell Gage, WR, Falcons
My second late round sleeper to target is Russel Gage. With Julio no longer in Atlanta he slots in as the #2 on what should be a high volume passing offense. Last year after week 10 he was on pace to have over 140 targets. He has a good chemistry with Ryan, especially on 3rd down. He had the 4th most 3rd down targets in the league tied with Stefon Diggs. Last year weeks 11-17 he was WR18. For his draft price which is a very late round pick I think Gage could be someone who could win some people some leagues. These are my 2 favorite late round sleepers that could give you some elite fantasy production and could even be league winners.
